Paint your house and ceiling first. You are probably asking for trouble if you put the floors down only to paint over the top of them. If you can, remove the tiles in the kitchen and paint just behind the line of the splashback too. Once painting is done replace kitchen benchtop then splashback. I would call the bathroom its own job and do it individually, unless you only need to paint the ceiling and if a tiler doesn't need to be brought in for anything else in the house? A lot of bathrooms now are getting tiled from floor to the ceiling if this is the case, paint the ceiling first, then tile. If walls need to be painted, it wouldn't really matter if you did them first or last, though if you did it first expect to do some touch-ups. I guess if you really wanted, you could do the first coat before tiles then second after... I don't exactly like stopping and starting painting, so I would do the walls (if they needed to be done) in one hit, after its been tiled. Well that's the order in which I would do everything... Really, for what you're asking, the painting could be done at anytime, but to make life easy on yourself, I would definitely recommend doing it before the floor.

I'd like to know what people do with their recycling. Do they just leave it on a counter or do they take it out every day like you mentioned with the rubbish? OR does it have it's own section that everybody just throws things into and then someone gets frustrated and takes out this heaving pile of recycling?

I think it would make both rooms too dark. Maybe go with a lighter floor colour?

We have chosen Torlys Laminate now. It is more expensive but more resistant to water and small elderly dogs. The flooring isn't down yet as the house is still under construction. We await with anticipation on the outcome of our trial of the Green Glue noise reducing tape, in conjunction with between floor insulation and well laid and attached particle board.